


Make me feel glorious

by piltovers_finest



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-02
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-10-26 22:31:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10796076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piltovers_finest/pseuds/piltovers_finest
Summary: Jayce has got it bad.





	Make me feel glorious

**Author's Note:**

> Set before Viktor starts working on Blitzcrank.

Jayce wasn't expecting this party to be any less dull than the rest, but somehow it has managed to surpass all previous ones. He dreads the idea, but maybe he's getting old. Or the others are getting old, and less interesting with age, which sounds more likely. That seems to be the case with Professor Stanwick Pididly, at least.

He's heard about his new protégée. A supposedly bright and innovative man from Zaun that Stanwick stole from the Academy of Techmaturgy. Jayce has yet to meet him, and he can't say that he's thrilled at the prospect. Most people around him are boring, and those who aren't can only keep him interested for so long. That's the burden he must carry, with an intellect like his.

He taps his fingers on his empty glass, looking around. Nobody seems interested in approaching him. Jayce is aware that they know better than to, and his stomach twists with  uncomfortable, yet not uncommon, loneliness.

"Excuse me," Jayce looks at the man in front of him, and can't pinpoint who he is. Young, maybe around his age. He looks extremely unimpressed, and his weary eyes and rigid posture hint at how unused to this kind of gatherings he might be. "Do you have any idea when we'll be able to leave?"

Jayce shrugs. "Beats me. They could keep at it for hours, they could decide to wrap it up in ten. Who are you, though? Don't know your name, and that doesn't say anything good about you."

The man, to his credit, seems to remain calm.

"Viktor. Professor Pididly's pupil," he spits the word pupil out as if it's something rotten, even though his tone is even and tame. Jayce almost smiles. "I don't have the faintest idea who you are, either, wonder what that says about you exactly."

Ah, the bright and innovative man from Zaun it is. Quite a mouth on that one, it seems. Jayce narrows his eyes, considering if getting riled up by Stanwick's latest fancy is worth it or not. Stanwick will get tired of this man, he presumes, and move on to something else soon. That's always been his way.

"Jayce. Why are you here, exactly?"

He knows that people think that he's rude. Some might have left by now. Viktor, though, laughs. As if it wasn't a jab, which it was, and it's dry and humorless and it makes Jayce blink at him in astonishment.

"Not because I bloody want to, that's for sure," Viktor says, looking around with a grimace, and Jayce finds himself caught sharing a sympathetic little look with him. Just a tiny one. Because he hates these Progress Day parties with a passion. "I don't understand the need for this. We could all be doing more interesting stuff right about now, if we weren't losing our time here."

Grumpy. Jayce finds that he agrees, though, and he nods.

"A waste of time and intellect. Not that there's much of the latter to go around, mind you."

Viktor settles by his side, leaning against the table and looking at the rest of the guests. Jayce looks at his profile for a second, then finds Stanwick in the crowd and his jaw clenches. Sleazy little man.

"And it's all here anyway, isn't it? Right where you are standing," his tone is so flat that it takes Jayce a beat to catch up with the fact that he's teasing.

"It's nice to see someone who can recognize talent once in a while, that much I can't deny," Jayce leaves his glass on the table and Viktor laughs again, that sharp and short laugh, and folds his arms in front of his chest.

"At least you're not set on talking about the benefits of the status quo," Viktor spits, eyebrows pinched. He's been talking to some of their colleagues, then. Old and stupid, the lot of them. "Absurd, that Piltover's Academy holds such ignorance between its walls."

Jayce elbows him, and Viktor glares. It's the most emotional reaction he's gotten out of him. It would have intimidated a lesser man, he supposes.  

"They're holding you, aren't they."

Viktor sighs.

"Do you even know anything about me. I suspect you don't, yet you diminish me. It's interesting, if irritating."

The thing is that Jayce has been told that he's unpleasant. He knows that. People expect him to be humble, virtuous, and less of a jerk. When he fails to deliver, others usually tend to make their disappointment very clear in ways that sometimes can hurt.

This Viktor character has just said that he is irritating, he's done that openly, but Jayce doesn't feel hurt. It's amusing, if anything, the way he tries to make Jayce see reason.

"I know that Stanwick thinks that you are, quote unquote, bright and innovative," Jayce looks at Viktor, but Viktor isn't looking at him and he can't read anything in the way he stands. Still rigid, which must be tiresome, and little else. "I know that you intended to attend the Academy of Techmaturgy but ended up here instead. I know that this hall is full of idiots, and you might be one too."

Viktor shrugs. "Fair enough. Doesn't exclude you as an idiot, though. They seem to accept anyone here. Quite the disappointment."

Jayce, albeit reluctantly, has to admit that he likes how quick on his feet this Viktor is. Not a second to catch his breath, not a spare moment to reflect on his words, not a sliver of humility or fear. He gives as good as he takes.

It's stimulating, and Jayce wonders for the first time in a long time if this man would be able to keep up with him if they started talking about something more serious. About progress, and the future, and robotics, and everything there is to talk about when they are both academics. It would be nice, if he could, but Jayce will keep his hopes down. He might have a quick wit, but that doesn't assure a strong mind. Or an interesting one, for that matter.

"Please, Viktor, do tell me about your research then," Viktor glances his way, and Jayce can swear that he sees the corner of his lip quirk up for the briefest moment.

By the end of the night, he's thrown all caution to the wind. This man has a view of the world that's not at odds with his, if they do disagree on some points, and a fascinating take on matters. He's direct, doesn't talk in circles, only bothers with theatrics if he feels that Jayce is getting bored. Viktor seems keen on calling him out when he starts getting arrogant, and the word flamboyant has been tossed around more than would have been ideal by the time the guests are guided out of the hall.

As they step out, Jayce finds that he wants to keep talking to Viktor even though they must have been at it for hours.

It's something he hasn't felt in a while.

He wouldn't mind getting used to it.

-x-

Stanwick's fancy was passing, but Viktor stays nonetheless, and as months go by Jayce can't say that he isn't grateful.

For a while, he entertained the notion of that conversation during the party being an exception. It would've been comfortable, easier, somehow. A one-time occurrence, a fond memory, and nothing else.

As it happens, Viktor keeps on surpassing his expectations in what seems to be an effortless way. At first, it was disconcerting. Jayce was thrown out of balance by it, caught in a situation that was as odd as Viktor. Where everyone would have already left, Viktor stayed. Dry, and disagreeable, but still there.

"You are doing that thing again," Jayce blinks, shaking himself out of his reverie. Viktor is staring at him, looking utterly unimpressed. "Zoning out, not paying attention as I speak."

Jayce grins, as wide and cocky as it gets. "You must have been saying some pretty boring things."

"I thought you were interested  in the deconstruction of the notion of humanity, but I must have been mistaken," the artificial light of the lab is harsh and sharpens Viktor's features to the point of making him look unapproachable. Jayce traces the long, straight, lines of his face with his eyes as he reflects on his words. Carefully. This is a matter in which they clash, and Jayce cares enough to come up with good arguments when Viktor is concerned.

He does care a lot, doesn't he. Worryingly so.

But that is something to ponder about later, when he's alone and Viktor isn't looking at him with a bland smile on his lips. As if he's expecting him to disappoint. Jayce bristles, irritated.

"Why focus so much on deconstruction instead of reconstruction?" Jayce says, and his stomach twists as Viktor's eyes light up with interest.

Viktor stands from his desk and walks towards Jayce. With time, he has learnt that his weary and rigid posture wasn't due to the party, it's just the way he holds himself. He would like to see him unravel some time, for scientific purposes if nothing else. So tight coiled, Viktor.

"Reconstruction does need previous deconstruction,"  he mumbles, and Jayce guesses that he's talking mostly to himself and has approached merely so that he can listen instead of missing it. He does that, sometimes, when he doesn't forget that Jayce is there. For all he accuses him of zoning out, he has a tendency to retreat into his own little world and isolate himself. Jayce has gotten used to that, and he has a second to be alarmed before Viktor chatters on. "Which doesn't mean destruction, mind you. It's way more complicated than that, isn't it? We can't work from nothing."

Jayce snorts, amused.

"Can't we?" Viktor's eyes snap to his, open wide and startled. He had forgotten about him. Impressive. "Isn't that what we do here?"

Viktor huffs. "Of course not. I was aware of how full of yourself you were, but this is ridiculous. From nothingness, nothing can be made."

"Everything can be made from nothing," simplistic, he knows. Viktor will harp on that with a vengeance. Jayce doesn't specially care. He did, during the first days, when he still wasn't sure whether or not Viktor was on his level. But, as it happens, he is and it makes for an interesting conversation or two. Jayce can deal with some teasing if that's the price.

"Is that really how you're going to defend your point?" Viktor quirks an eyebrow, and Jayce shrugs. It's true. As true as vaguely philosophical statements can get. They're academics, intellectuals, they know that. "It's completely devoid of meaning."

"Therefore it can be filled with meaning, and something can be created from nothing."

Viktor's eyes narrow. "Do you oversimplify everything like that?"

There it is.

It's going to be a very long evening. Jayce can't say that he minds.

-x-

Jayce is having a bad day. The worst he's had in quite a while. His head hurts, he feels sluggish and irritable, and people won't stop chitchatting at him as if he wants to listen to anything they've got to say.

He's about to snap at Stanwick, sitting in one of his lectures, when the door opens and in comes Viktor, as tense as ever, looking slightly harassed and incredibly tired. The way Jayce's entire body uncoils and relaxes at the sight of him is very worrisome.

Maybe it's familiarity. Maybe it's because Viktor is the only thing he's ever had even remotely close to a friend. That must be it. What else could it be.

His head hurts too much to think about it, anyway, and as Viktor sits by his side and squints at the blackboards Jayce entertains himself with looking at him. That is a thing that he does a lot too, isn't it. Worrisome.

Worrisome.

"Good grief, is that how Pididly is trying to explain the self?"

Jayce snorts. "It is, indeed. Aren't you glad to be his pupil, now?"       

"Shut up. I am not his pupil anymore," Viktor huffs, and Jayce can feel his exasperation rolling out of him in waves. "Those concepts have been outdated for decades."

"His understanding of the self has been outdated for decades," Stanwick has been writing some very misleading crap on his blackboards. Jayce loathes to see how many of the students are hanging on every single one of his words. It's dangerous. They're supposed to be Piltover's Finest, not Piltover's Sort Of Better Than Some People Maybe Who Haven't Read A Single Book.

"Our self is our essence," Stanwick says, and Viktor's pencil snaps between his fingers.

"Crap."

"Ease up."

"I can't, he's telling a room full of students that there is an essence."

Jayce snorts. It's the way he says it, so serious, so scandalized. It almost makes him forget about his horrid day.

Until Stanwick's eyes are on him.

"Mind telling the class the joke, Jayce?"

Crap indeed.

Jayce has nothing to lose, though, and he has never been famous for his self control or his sense of propriety.

"That concept of the self," he answers, and Stanwick frowns.

"You think you can explain it better?"

Whispers start rising around him. Viktor is the only one who seems to be silent, drilling Stanwick with a very unimpressed look of his own. As someone who's on the other end of that look very often, Jayce knows how annoying it can get.

"I think I can at least explain a concept of the self that isn't archaic," Jayce smirks. Stanwick bristles.

"Enough. Get out of my class."

Well, it's not like it's a great loss. Maybe even the opposite. He could catch up on some work up in the lab.

"He's right, though," Jayce freezes, halfway into standing up. Viktor has talked, deadpan. Stanwick glowers. "Equating the self to an essence is arbitrary at best and outright dangerous at worst."

"Leave. Both of you."

Their way to the door is almost solemn. Silent, slow, ceremonial. Viktor is playing along with him on this, and once the door closes behind their backs, Jayce starts laughing and doesn't seem to be able to stop.

"I can't believe you, Viktor," he nudges him with an elbow, and Viktor grumbles under his breath but smiles. "Thank you. A bit on the dramatic side, but great performance back there."

Viktor slaps  his arm, but the smile is still there. "Desist. It was nothing. You're the one who appeared set on starting a revolution."

He has a comeback on the tip of the tongue, he does. It's a good one, too, but all of a sudden he can't speak.

As he looks at Viktor, at the ever present tense line of his shoulders and the way he scrunches his nose as he thinks, Jayce finds himself wanting to kiss his reluctant smile.

Worrisome indeed.

-x-

The next morning, Jayce looks at himself in the mirror half expecting something, anything, to have changed. Yet he's still the same, nothing seems out of place. It doesn't feel right, that there hasn't been a significant noticeable change in him after realizing that he's fallen hard for Viktor.

When he gets to the lab, he's in a tangled mess of conflicting emotions that both annoy and terrify him, but at least he's alone. It won't be long until Viktor gets there, though, and he sits on his desk dreading the moment he does, and frowning at the books and pieces of paper on it as if they're at fault for his situation.

But Viktor arrives, muttering under his breath and looking like he hasn't had a blink of sleep, and Jayce looks at him and feels oddly settled. It's fine. He will be alright, they will be alright.

"I'm starting to worry about you," Viktor says, amused, and Jayce frowns. "I've said good morning three times."

 Oh. He does have to work on this attention thing, doesn't he. Even the more so now that he has to worry about Viktor finding out. Which is a possibility that he hadn't even contemplated, not telling him but Viktor being able to figure it out on his own.

Jayce sighs. "Good for you, maybe," Viktor quirks an eyebrow his way, but doesn't comment. He's grateful. He feels like the barest of nagging would make him crack and tell him everything.

He throws himself into his work. Letting his mind wander won't do him any good and he does need to get things sorted out. He tinkers with mechanisms, reads lines upon lines of data that he's already used, and tries to avoid Viktor as nonchalantly as he can. It's easy enough, since Viktor has his own things to do, and Jayce is glad to see that by the end of the morning he has managed to both tune him out completely and stop thinking about the matter.

Yes. Good. It's fine. He can do this.

-x-

He can't do this.

It seemed easy enough, last week, when they each had their own thing to work on. He does think that Viktor has noticed that he's been avoidant, but he won't speak up and that's alright with Jayce.

But they've been assigned to the same project, now, and that requires not only spending a lot of time in the same lab, but doing it together.

Paying attention to each other, and talking, and being in close proximity.

Jayce spends the days with his emotions in an awful mess of anxiety, fear, longing, and hopefulness. He's hyperaware of Viktor in a way that he supposes is his own fault after trying to ignore him for so long, and he notices everything.

Like the way his hair gets all over the place when he can't stop running his hands through it, which is happening right now and has Jayce transfixed. Jayce groans, pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes.

He's got it so bad.

"Are you okay?" Viktor asks, and the concern in his voice makes Jayce's stomach twist.

"Yes. Tired, is all."

It's not exactly a lie. He tries to smile at Viktor, to reassure him that it really is nothing, but it only makes Viktor frown and, alarmingly enough, cross the lab and sit on Jayce's desk.

"Why have you been avoiding me, exactly?" Viktor sounds calm, but Jayce knows him well enough by now to be aware that he must be at least worried if he's asking.

Jayce shrugs. "It's nothing. You don't have to worry about it," Viktor laughs, dry and sharp, and leans over Jayce and right into his space. Jayce tries to flatten against his chair.

"I am not worried, Jayce, I am livid," Jayce glances up at Viktor. His mouth is set in a thin line. He's as tense as he's ever been, and Jayce yearns to smooth his frown out and has to grip the arms of his chair instead. "What is going on."

Viktor is very close. His fringe brushes Jayce's forehead and he takes a shaky breath.

"Nothing. Viktor, it really is nothing that you have to be concerned about," he feels horrible the second the words leave his mouth. He knows they're harsh, he knows why he's said them.

Viktor jumps down from the desk, and Jayce knows that he's crossed the line. That if Viktor was livid before, now he's well beyond that. But he can't tell him. He just. He can't.

He doesn't try to talk to Jayce again that day.

-x-

"I'm sorry," Jayce has barely set foot in the lab when Viktor talks, standing by his own desk. His head is hanging low, and Jayce freezes by the door. "I shouldn't have pressured you yesterday it's just...I'm just frustrated."

Viktor raises his head and looks at him and it's like a punch. He sighs. Jayce doesn't know what to say, so he says nothing at all.

"I don't know how to help you, and you won't let me. Something is going on and I..." Viktor pauses, smiles ruefully at him in a way that doesn't reach his eyes and makes Jayce's heart clench in disapproval. "Forget it. I don't want to start all over again. What do we have to do today?"

Jayce feels like he had gotten close, so close, to getting something and it's been yanked away from him. He has no idea what it was, but he doesn't like the feeling.

"I meant it, what I said yesterday," Viktor's shoulders tense even more. Jayce didn't think it possible. "You really don't need to worry. I'm okay. I will fix it."

Viktor snorts. "As you do with everything, right?"

A wave of relief washes over him. It's okay. They're okay. Back to normal, and away from the odd tension and the scorn and the worry. It's fine.

"Exactly," feeling more confident than he has in days, Jayce strolls into the lab and to Viktor's desk and looks down at his notes. He pretends that he doesn't notice Viktor shuffling by his side, his arm pressing against his, his warmth. "What would you rather do, figure out why that gizmo Stanwick made isn't working, or read a million papers about things we already know?"

Viktor laughs, that awful laugh of his that makes something flutter in Jayce's stomach no matter how horrible it is. He can feel his breath on his cheek. It's quite distracting.

"I don't know. Both sound thrilling," Viktor nudges him with his elbow and Jayce turns his head to look at him. So close. Again. What is it with Viktor and getting awfully close to him lately. "What do you want?"

Jayce's breath catches in his throat. Viktor looks like he knows. The barely there curve of a weary smile, tired eyes pinning Jayce to the floor. Like he knows and like he doesn't mind, and Jayce swallows around a knot in his throat because it can't be true. It must be his own mind. He is an arrogant idiot, or so he's been told. Many times. He can't read into everything. No matter how undeniably he can feel the tension around him, he can't trust himself.

He smiles nervously. "I call dibs on the gizmo," Viktor's groan does funny things to his stomach, and he regrets not being brave and trying to tell him the moment Viktor steps back to fiddle around a cupboard looking for the papers.

Again, Jayce feels like he was about to get something and it was yanked away just when he was grazing it with his fingers. Only now he's the one to blame.

Feeling confused and worn, Jayce sighs heavily and walks to the work bench.

-x-

Stanwick's invention doesn't work because it's built all wrong, and Jayce's frustration has reached its peak by the time the sun starts to set. It just doesn't make any sense. Its mechanism has been assembled in such a warped fashion that it's almost impossible to imagine how anyone would expect it to work.  

When Viktor approaches the work bench, Jayce is tired, sweaty, frustrated, angry and about as done with that thing as he's going to get.

"I see the thing still isn't working," Jayce grunts as only answer, and Viktor taps his shoulder. "May I?"

Jayce slumps on the chair, closes his eyes, and sighs as he hands Viktor the thing. "Suit yourself."

The sound of Viktor tinkering away at it by his side is soothing. He lets it warp around him, reveling in the closeness. Viktor starts to hum after a while and Jayce snickers, lazily opening an eye to look at him. He's focused, but relaxed. He has been messing his hair up and it's absolutely everywhere. His fingers move fast and sure around the thing, and Jayce hums. He's got it so incredibly bad.

"I found the problem," Viktor says, and Jayce opens both eyes and stands to look down at the thing. "The problem is everything, and we should throw this away."

Jayce snorts. "That we should do. Stanwick won't be pleased though."

Viktor shrugs, and Jayce can feel it against his own arm. So close, again. Unnervingly so.

"He isn't pleased with us anyway. Don't know why he hasn't kicked me out yet," he leaves the thing on the work bench and turns to face him. Jayce huffs.

"He hasn't kicked you out because he can't. You're brilliant, he wouldn't be able to justify it."

"That sounded dangerously close to a compliment."

"It was. Don't let it go to your head, though, I think one overbearing inventor per academy is quite enough."

"We are academics, don't think Piltover is going to run out of ego anytime soon," Viktor doesn't step back, and he's destroying Jayce with his closeness and his warmth and his teasing. His eyes are alight in a way that Jayce doesn't see often and it's wreaking havoc in his already crumbling resolve of never telling him.

He can't lose him, but it's getting ridiculous.

Viktor sobers up, still smiling but subdued, and everything about him seems softer then, under the dimming light of the laboratory. "It's good to have you back."

Jayce's breathing hitches. Looking into Viktor's eyes, searching, the feeling of being about to get something is back with a vengeance and he'll be damned if he lets it get yanked away again.

He takes a fortifying breath, straightens his back and reaches out to brush his fingers against Viktor's. He doesn't flinch, steadily holding Jayce's gaze.

"It's good to be back," he whispers. It's now or never. He doesn't know if he'll be able to do this again, if his nerve will hold. "I missed you."

Viktor takes his hand, and he's so relieved he's afraid his knees will give out.

"I missed you too," Jayce looks at Viktor, really looks, and stops trying to tell him that he can't see what he does. He sees the same longing he's feeling, the nervous anticipation, the barely there quirk of a bashful smile. He wants to kiss it.

He leans in, and he brushes his lips with Viktor's. It's everything and it's nothing, and Jayce closes his eyes and kisses him. Viktor kisses back, fingers clenched around Jayce's, and his heart beats strong and steady in his chest. _Yes_ , he thinks, _yes_ and _finally_ and _right, this is right_.

Viktor leans back first, and he smirks at Jayce and Jayce rests his free hand on his hip mostly because he can.

"Could've done without the flamboyance for a while longer, though," Viktor says, and Jayce laughs and kisses his smirk away.

**Author's Note:**

> i'd like to thank riot for giving us this good good college au in the lore even though they then decided to make the boys tragic and hurt us all


End file.
